Six Odd Bunnies

[vox00.livejournal.com]

1. Optimus looked about himself, an uneasy feeling marring his tanks, realizing that he was the only spot of color in the eerie stillness of Iacon and that the moons no longer moved in the sky...

2. ‘This is what I once was, long ago. Beautiful, don’t you think?’

3. ‘And the world fell down upon us, the endless seas of misery and oppression finally breaking the dams we’d made to hold them at bay, and crushing us beneath their all encompassing weight. We were fools; fools to think that things could remain as they were; that the Golden Age would be forever golden. Now we are damned fools, destined to do nothing but die...’

4. Blank red optics stared up at them with something frighteningly like innocent confusion as a softly scratchy voice asked out a question which should have never been asked, or else asked joyously. ‘Why did you bring me back?’

5. Starscream smiled, optics blank and unseeing, as he watched the blue planet before him spin upon its pallet of stars, the satellite beneath him drifting ever onwards in silence.

6. As if sharing a single thought the group of stranded mechs turned as one to regard the abnormally quiet Decepticon SIC. Starscream for his part was simply sitting upon the rocky floor of the cavern, knees drawn up to his chest, an expression of abject misery on his faceplates as he muttered quietly over and over to himself. ‘I hate it here… always hated it here…’ ‘You’ve been here before,’ Sideswipe cut through the litany coldly, causing the Seeker to look up at him dejectedly, ‘you know where we are then, right?!’ A sad, too old look was cast over those waiting impatiently for the Seeker’s answer. ‘…The Pit…’

Comments

Bunny 2 bit. May readapt for other fanfic. [Edit pre-posting: Definitely using for other fanfic.]

[kaitou-pandora.livejournal.com]

Notes: Set in an AU Car Robots/Robots in Disguise-type series, mainly the second half. Slight crossover with G1 snuck in at the last moment. Minor spoilers for a conversation in Ep. 2 of CR/RID. This turned out longer than I thought it would be.

"This is what I once was, long ago. Beautiful, don’t you think?"

"I . . ."

"I'm not always like this now, for obvious reasons. The transformation is easy enough to power on my own, but it always leaves me drained afterwards. The crystal powering it helps relieve a good deal of strain."

"How?"

"Truth be told, I am unaware of the precise mechanics behind it. That is something my creator would have been able to explain, if he were still alive."

"But . . ."

"My creator was very careful in creating the upgrades, as I recall. Only my brothers and myself are able to utilize it. We hadn't used it in ages . . . The power boost that Ultra Magnus unleashed only reactivated the ability from where it lay dormant. Finding the crystals established the upgrade permanently, and unlocked the memory sets necessary to utilize it."

"Is there a way to reproduce this?"

"I'm afraid not. Our creator's instructions were very specific on that point. My brothers and myself are the only ones capable of utilizing this upgrade. To do so for anyone else would be disastrous."

"Thank you for the information. Nevertheless, we must do everything we can to keep this information out of Predacon and Decepticon hands."

"An excellent idea, Optimus. Having the crystals stolen to prevent our prolonged transformations would be . . . inconvenient."

A moment's pause, and the fire engine transformed and rolled away.

The mech gently cradled the sky-blue Praxian crystal he held, sighing as his armor faded back to its usual coloring.

The truth was that each crystal controlled specific abilities. As he and his brothers had been designed specifically so that their root forms would have proportionally weaker forms of these abilities, it was easy enough to state that their creator had designed the crystals to power the upgrades for them and them only.

"You okay, bro?"

"Just finished briefing Optimus on the crystals. He thinks that disastrous consequences will befall anyone who is not one of us that tries to utilize the crystals."

"Just say that he thinks the crystals will go 'boom' if we give the crystals to anyone else."

"Crude, but accurate."

They'd been created to use the crystals. Each crystal housed the memories and abilities of long-dead Autobots of vorns past.

X-Brawn had been designed with the Autobot engineer Wheeljack in mind.

Side Burn had been created to house Hot Rod, the Autobot-that-had-been before Rodimus Prime rose to power, but also somewhat reminiscent of one of the infamous Autobot twins, Sideswipe, as his name reflected..

Prowl had been forged to house the Autobot tactician Prowl, his namesake.

It showed more in the personality of their unpowered forms. Side Burn flirted with red sports cars - no doubt Sideswipe's influence; the mech had a red sports car as his alternate form. X-Brawn had a so-far hidden ability to make the most innocent of items explode with a little tinkering. Prowl had his namesake's love of logic and order.

"C'mon, bro! You're going to rust if you stand there all day!"

"Like he wouldn't otherwise?"

"Hey, he told me about the transmission incident."

"Leave that out of this!"

His brothers stood waiting for him in alternate form.

Smiling, Prowl slipped the sky-blue power crystal that he cradled into subspace gently, and went to join his brothers.

(A/N: . . . yeah. Why can I not write proper drabbles for _fanfic_?)

Re: Bunny 2 bit. May readapt for other fanfic. [Edit pre-posting: Definitely using for other fanfic.

[kaitou-pandora.livejournal.com]

Note: Altered slightly and posted at fanfiction.net. Link found here, if you're interested: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5808416/1/What_Came_Before. Will eventually be continued.

[peppymint1986.livejournal.com]

I love number six. Though now I have to wonder how many times Starscream has died, and how many times he has escaped. Whoever is in charge is not going to be happy. Then they added twist that he and the other mechs are alive.